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How To Make 2011 Your Best Blogging Year

A new year brings with it a new beginning and a new start. You can look at it as the same old same old or you can look at it as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Here are some tips to make 2011 your best blogging year.

Take Your Blog Seriously

Because a blog cost next to nothing to start, most bloggers don’t take it as seriously as they should. If you want your blog to advance beyond the hobby stage, you need to take it seriously and treat it like a real business. Don’t let 2011 be the year you’ll give blogging a try or make a half hearted effort to start blogging again. Instead, make 2011 the year you take your blog to the next level because your blog is just as serious as a $100,000 “real” business.

I know many business that cost over $100K to start that makes no where close to what my blog makes. Yet, my blog was started for the cost of a domain name. Very few normal businesses can be started for the cost of a domain name and grow into a $500,000 operation in four years. But that is the power of blogging if you take it seriously and continue to work at it on a consistent basis. Treat your blog like you would treat a $100,000 business and your entire blogging outlook will change.

It’s Time To Get Your Own Domain Name and Web Hosting

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to give your blog a domain name and get out of Blogspot or WordPress.com and into a professional web host. Taking your blog seriously means having your domain name and a professional web host. Fortunately, the cost of these items are so low that any normal business would kill if that’s the only expense they have to pay for.

From my personal experience, I can tell you to that you should chose your domain name registar and web host very carefully. I do not have an official endorsement on where to get a domain name but I’ve heard good things about Name Cheap. Whoever you use, you should stay away from GoDaddy at all cost.

John Chow dot Com is hosted by HostGator and CDN is provided by MaxCDN. The two combination creates a blog that can handle virtually any amounts of traffic. Their service is top notch and I highly recommend them. HostGator offers John Chow readers their first month hosting for $1 by using coupon code JohnChowRocks at checkout. You can get 20% off your CDN bill at MaxCDN when you use coupon code JohnChow.

Make a Commitment to Post On A Consistent Frequency

Many new people read this blog and think it had always made a lot of money. The truth is, I started just like you did. For the first eight months of my blog’s life, it made zero and barely cracked 1,000 page views per day. It also didn’t look anything like it does today.

If I were to nail down one ingredient to blogging success, it would have to be a consistent posting habit. Most bloggers fail because they want instant gratification and mistakenly think that blogging is the quick road to riches. When they first start, they’ll post like crazy for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. When nothing comes from it, they quit and become a statistic.

The key is consistency. On again, off again blogging doesn’t work. I have averaged two posts per day since the day this blog was created. There has never been a single day when there wasn’t new post to read. Even when I go on vacation (like I am now), the posting frequency does not change. It is this kind of consistency and commitment that will lead your blog to success in 2011. You should choose a posting frequency and make a commitment to stick to it for the entire year.

Start That Mailing List NOW

You’ve heard me talk all year about how the money is in the list. Well, it is! I can not stress enough how important it is for a money making blog to have a mailing list. The list is the number one reason my blog makes the income that it does. If you don’t have one yet, then the first thing you should do in 2011 is get a mailing list.

My recommended mailing list provider is Aweber. They are by far the best in the business and have features that put them light years ahead of the competition. Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts and follow ups. If for some amazing reason, you can’t make the $1 back, then email marketing and making money by blogging is clearly not for you. Send Aweber an email and they’ll give you the $1 back.

Have a Marketing Plan In Place

Most bloggers think making money online is like the movie Field of Dreams, where the main character was told, “If you build it, they will come.” The truth of the matter is you can build it but if nobody knows about it, they’re not coming. Marketing is what separates the big blogs from the small ones. It takes a lot more than good content to build a big blog. There are tons of smaller blogs that have better content than me. The reason they don’t get bigger is because they do little or no marketing. If your blog is not where you want it to be, ask yourself what you’ve been doing to market it. Content is only half the formula. You have to get your blog out there. That means you need to have a marketing plan in place before you start your blog. How do you plan to market your blog? If you don’t have the answer to that, then you need to sit down and work out a plan.

Tell Your Story

Blogging is all about forming relationships. There’s the relationship between you and the readers and relationship between you and other blogs in your niche. Make a commitment to get to know them and form that relationship.

In addition to getting to know your readers, you should have your readers get to know you. If you haven’t done so yet, then make 2011 the year to create your about page and tell YOUR story. Where did you come from? What are you goals and dreams? Introduce your family members. The more the readers know about you, the more they’ll connect with you and trust you.

Be A Highly Effective Blogger

If you ever read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, then you’ll know about the time quadrant. Basically, Every activity we do during the day can be put in one of four quadrants:

Urgent and important (crises, pressing problem, deadline)

Not urgent and important (Relationship building, planning, exercise)

Urgent and not important (Interruptions, some calls, emails, etc.)

Not urgent and not important (Busy work, time wasters, pleasant activities)

Answer this question: What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Chances are, whatever you name, it’s a Quadrant two activity.

Quadrant two is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are important but not urgent, like building your blog, forming relationships, long term financial planning, exercising – all those things we know we need to do, but seldom get around to doing because they are not urgent and can be put off until some other day. Well, we all know that someday never comes.

Don’t put off what you know you need to do just because it’s not urgent and you can always get to it someday. For many, someday will turn into years or never. I know people who said they were going to get into blogging years ago. I’m still waiting to see their blogs. The main difference between a highly successful blogger and an unsuccessful one is the successful blogger knows blogging is not urgent but it’s important enough to actually get started and keep going.

137 thoughts on “How To Make 2011 Your Best Blogging Year”

“Content is only half the formula”, i believe in this becoz very recently i started to realize the importance of blog marketing. In fact, i took blog marketing at the first place in my priority list for 2011.

I think, i got a chance to write a very first comment for this article 🙂

I agree, the motivational factor is huge. If it inspires your readers to take action, you’ve got a tremendous opportunity to get them to come back.

John has personally admitted that there are better bloggers out there, (although, I’m not sure I can name somebody that I like better) but the difference is that John’s able to connect with his readers in a way that most can’t.

It’s not about the techinical, it’s about the emotional side. That’s where most bloggers make the biggest mistake.

Since 2006 I’ve been reading your blog, and it continues to deliver and reinforce the most important things to making money online. Sure a lot of the lessons are recycled from prior posts but it’s always just as informative and effective to read the lessons for the 100th time as it the 1st.

I owe A LOT of my success to this blog. Thanks and let’s have a great 2011!

Excellent Post John, I’ve followed your tips on your ebook(make Money Online) and has recently got a domain name for my site and started to take all my site like a business. super post….keep them coming…

Once again; an inspiring post from John Chow! Whenever I feel down and just don’t want to do nothing anymore… I read an article here on your blog and I leave inspired and with new ideas! Thanks for that and a happy and (no doubt) successful 2011.

Wonderful and very helpful John as always, You actually have 8 or more great posts that you create just by expanding on each topic of the post, Marketing plan, tell your story, be more effective, those would be very helpful to many I am sure.

I think that is where most of us get lost, we get bits and pieces and never really figure out how to put the whole thing together. I know over the years I have learned so much from you but still kinda struggle in many areas.

That is a another money making idea for you, Make A system that is so simple all we have to do is connect the dots 🙂 Dot to Dot Cash lol Because some of us, namely me, are quite simple minded and need easier instructions.

John, this message is right on time. I’ve done most of what you recommend, so for 2011 I have to focus on posting consistency. I’m not at the 2 posts a day rate yet, but I will start where I can and work my way up there. Excellent post, and Happy New Year!

I am at a crossroads right now in choosing a domain name and subject of my next blog. On the one hand, it seems that using your own name as the domain and building the blog around your passion is good.
On the other hand, choosing a lucrative phrase for your domain, like as you suggest in your interview with Chris about selling as an Amazon associate, and building around that, seems also good. I guess one should have both, but if your going to focus on one, which is the better direction to go, in order to make money?

Most people do not realize what blogging can do for their personal image and their brand. Even if you do choose to work at a company, what do you think the first thing that they are going to do? They are going to Google your name and look around the web for your social profiles to learn more about you. Now if you had a blog, it will add tons of credibility to your character because it shows that you are willing to go the extra mile to improve your own abilities.

Nice post, JC… Building a list from early-on is definitely one of the most critical aspects of online success. They need to get to know, like, and trust you. When this happens, you now have “fans” that buy your stuff and listen to your recommendations.

Awesome Takeaway John, I’ve been reading about everything you mentioned in your post from reading your “make money online” book with Kwan. Excellent stuff, if your readers want to advance, they really need to read your work. Very subtle things that i’ve taken from the book has helped me as well and i’m not even in the make money online niche, so know it works.

Thank you John. Your blog serves as my inspiration and your post and advices serve as my guide in blogging. It is indeed true that being consistent in posting articles is a must for a blog to grow.

My 2010 blogging experience was a great one. With a one-year old blog, i managed to get at least 2,500 pageviews daily and my target in 2010 is to reach 5,000 daily page views. I already purchased a domain and it is 3-month old now. Still i’m hosted at blogger but i’m also planning to host this blog to a reliable hosting company.

Great post John! Lots of good advice for any blogger. As several commentors have said, I really like the comment about great content being only half the battle. If no one knows about your blog, then it doesn’t matter how great the content is.

Great post john and I completely agree with you! I have been one of those people who plans to ‘get to it later’ for years and I have finally learned the value of a consistent schedule. I also noticed that last year I had 10 new years resolutions that were all pretty difficult things. The end result for me in 2010 was only achieving a few of them and feeling that I let myself down because of it. I decided that to get where I want to go this year there is only one new years resolution, make my first million. I think that only having that one goal allows me a clear cut focus and by completing that everything else will follow. Happy New Year!

Great Post John! I’v been Blogging for a yr now! and I’m still learning about the right things to post and when, I sure need to step up and take it too the next level! Posting two times aday is a good start!

However, I’m a fairly consistent blogger (mostly all unique content) on both BusinessSuccessFactory.co.uk and NicolaCairncross.com but I can’t seem to break through with the big visitor numbers.

Even my previous blog which went for over 10 years, had members, thousands of backlinks etc., never topped 5500 uniques a month. What is the secret APART from blogging consistently that makes the difference?

Great post John! Lots of good advice for any blogger. As several commentors have said, I really like the comment about great content being only half the battle. If no one knows about your blog, then it doesn’t matter how great the content is.

I’ve been following your advice for a few months and set a deadline for Dec 31 to get my blog up and running with first story posted. Done. And now I’ll use your latest tips and advice to keep it going effectively. Thanks John.

Yep. Marketing. For over a year I have been blogging to 15 people. Some days all 15 show up. Other days only a couple of them.

I went from daily posts to every other day. Sounds like I should think about every day … but first, I guess, I have to make that marketing plan. Without it, I might as well start each post with, “Hi mom!” (except that she hardly ever visits my site and it’s other loyal readers that make my tiny statistics.)

I keep waiting to be discovered with occasional guerilla raids that get me a week of 50 visitors. Yah, the trend is in the right direction but one new loyal “fan” per month is just not cutting it.

Thanks for sharing, posting everyday is a good idea when you have a lot of people visiting your blog in a daily basis. But what’s about if you have an average of 10 visitors and most of them come to spam your blog with all kind of irrelevant comment?

Sounds like you need to make some changes and experiment with different types of posts. Create engaging content and use a comment spam filter for WordPress. Leave valuable (not copy/paste) comments on other blogs like yours and you’ll increase your comments without question.

Nice article! My blog has broken around 1,000 hits per month, so it sounds like I need to redouble my posting efforts and explore marketing more vigorously than I have been. Thanks for sharing your insights!

This is powerful stuff John, I am currently following your template for a successful blog and let me tell you that with dedication and a strong commitment your blogging template really works. Thanks for showing me the way!
Many Regards

You can have the best content in the world but if nobody come to read it then it’s not worth the time it took to write it.
You could have the worst content but if 50,000 readers come to read it a day then you will do well.
Most people over focus on the content.
Look at the successful people — they market, market market.

I have had my blog for a little over a year now and have it filled with pretty juicy content, but what are some good (unique) ways to market it? I am a web designer from Idaho and blogging is kinda new to me..

Hi John, really an interesting article. I am going to do exactly what you have said here. I am making money with my blog, but that’s not enough for me right now. I will consider my blog as a business and I am going to promote as hard as I can.

Lots of bloggers (including me) have a problem deciding what to write about. We see blog posts like yours and wonder how you come up with this stuff. Others have some great ideas, but just don’t know how to articulate what they want to say.
A lot of professional bloggers recommend to just start doing it. They say you learn and get better as you go. I guess that is why it takes so long for many bloggers to become successful.

Very interesting post. 🙂 Especially the point on consistency which is in my humble opinion the most difficult to achieve at least as regards finding every day something interesting to write about. All advices are good and who better than John Chow can talk about success at blogging? 🙂

Wow. First off, that took forever to read through all of the comments on here. You are definitely one popular guy who appears to have created a blog people love to come and read and comment on. This is when we now we are doing a good job. It isn’t always about the money(although we all know that is a great motivator)

I have been blogging since 2005 but have not been consistent. I was as you said, a dedicated poster of every day blogging when I first started, then over the years I posted once or twice a month sometimes but tried to keep it at least once a week.

Then I came across OnlyWire which has a plugin you can use with WordPress. Once I had signed up to all of the social media sites I was interested in and had good things about, it was simply a matter of making sure the option was checked to submit the post once it was completed and it was sent to all those places. I saw a big jump in my visitors per day.

Also adding the SEO plugin to the blog had a pretty big impact as well.

There are many things you can do for marketing but the key is to employ them on a consistent basis just as you need to for your posting. It does not have to take all day. I know successful bloggers who only work 1-3 hours a day and make six figures a year.

I have a goal of making $36k by the end if this year($3000 a month) on my blog. I am going to concentrate on building up my email list and selling the new ebooks I just wrote and published. This may not seem like much to some people but right now I am making around $500 a month so it is a good challenge.

In John’s email to me 2 days ago he said “I register all my domain names at GoDaddy.com.” But in this article, he said to avoid them at all cost. I was just about to use GoDaddy and then I read this
post. Why the sudden change in opinion?

I’m new to blogging and have started a blog about something I’m passionate about – making money from money! And money from nothing, i.e. your time and effort. So, true that you have to keep at it even if no one is reading it. Don’t give up, keep at it and you’ll get found online and hopefully it will pay off big. Have fun with your blog, be sure to exchange links with other like-minded sites and post in forums, keep going and don’t stop.

I read this all. This is a great article for whole blogger community. After reading this I thought I need to be more creative, motivated and more tactful to attract more people to my blog. I think I need to restructure my blog and post more content more regularly. And I thought It is the time to buy my own domain for my blog. Thanx for the great article.

"How I Went From Zero to Over $100,000 a Month"

The Original Dot Com Mogul

John Chow, a damn fine person, friend of the community, Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, member of the Save the Whales Foundation, the man who controls the black market on baby seal pelts and member of the probably yo’ daddy foundation...

John Chow rocketed onto the blogging scene when he showed the income power of blogging by taking his blog from making zero to over $40,000 per month in just two years.